ILM's Top 100 Tracks of the 2010s

…and that’s just your country

I rather meant specific charts in their country of origin and overseas. The US afrobeats chart was established only this year. Charts in Nigeria must also be relatively new, the music and the hype circulate differently (video streams, club concerts, tabloids, fashion). There are exceptions and they're growing and the market is maturing and globalizing - but that's a loong way from Antenna. What's actually exciting is that the market formed at the same time as the artists that we're rooting for. But it's not helping a US-UK-based audience see clearly, they can't just pick, cause the system to elevate and identify the "anthems" is not quite there yet. Afropop and afrohouse is still everyone's jam. Which is a good thing imo if the alternative is commodification. I'm just saying I'm not surprised.

I'm glad that Calm Down is following Jerusalema in Switzerland, that's nice. But I was recently at an afropop night in Bern and the song came on, and it didn't elicit any particular reaction and clearly no one in the room knew the steps, at best they knew it was South African. But that was because it was a normal youthful crowd. Something of the culture does not travel, and that's another reason the echo is always going to be different.

If only Burna Boy had the same visibility as "Marry Me Archie" or whatever

Yeah. We could help Burna Boy by setting up individual wiki pages for his songs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie,_Marry_Me

eagerly anticipating the next album from swiss afrobeats star bern-a boy

""Archie, Marry Me" examines modern romance and traditional marriage, and touches on themes of commitment and financial stability."

not sure I understand all of the points you’re trying to make here, at least several of them seem wrong to me. but if you think Global Afropop is still struggling to somehow emulate that “Antenna” peak of a decade ago - and failing, I don’t know what to tell you.

Rema’s “Calm Down” is currently number one here in the Netherlands after having already topped the French charts.

Burna’s “Last Last” is a big hit the world over.

Fireboy’s “Peru” is the second-biggest hit of the year in the UK so far

this after “Love Nwantiti”, “Essence”, “Jerusalema”.

it took much longer than it should have, but afropop is getting more mainstream by the day. there’s no guarantee it will ever be as big globally as reggaeton is now, but I also wouldn’t want to bet against it, the trajectory is very similar.

anyway, bringing it back to this poll, the issue, as has been noted already, is broader than just African pop. and yes, that is a (lack of) numbers game to a large extent, at the ILM level - although the more recent EOY polls have seen much better representation than this decade poll.

xps

Which reminds me there has been 0 representation of reggaeton or any latinamerican music in this poll.

Will it all be redeemed on our top 20? We’ll see.

it took a while for afrobeats to break stateside. wizkid was on “one dance” in 2016, it didn’t become a critical cause celebre until 2019 or so, and it took even longer for it to become a commercial force over here. obv the uk timeline is accelerated a bit.

there will be lots more afrobeats in the 2020s poll

Felt aggrieved when the Donnie Trumpet placed as I was sure I hated it first time around; saw I had liked it, listened again and realised in fact I love it. Memory is an idiot.

Ass on the Floor absolute favourite discovery of the poll so far - such a weird and twisty little song!

Which reminds me there has been 0 representation of reggaeton or any latinamerican music in this poll.

Will it all be redeemed on our top 20? We’ll see.

Obviously, Despacito is going to take the top spot.

Ass on the Floor absolute favourite discovery of the poll so far - such a weird and twisty little song!

― tangenttangent, Thursday, 18 August 2022 20:16 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

I wasn't kidding!

I'm hardly the borad's biggest Last Train To Paris fan, but if yall haven't heard that album yet, it's certainly worth checking out

Voted for "Headache" (#1), "Ass on the Floor," "Into You," and "Sunday Candy" today, and probably chose the "wrong" Burial and Carly Rae Jepsen songs to rank, but oh well. I think of "Sunday Candy" as much as a Jamila Woods song as a Chance song. "Not" is a jam and probably should have made my ballot.

I assume we will see "Inspector Norse," "212," "Love It If We Made It," and one more Carly song ("Warm Blood" or "Call Me Maybe"?) tomorrow. I've given up on a couple of my higher ranked country songs at this point, but I guess another Kacey track could rank. As far as left-field choices, I'm going with The Comet is Coming's "Summon the Fire," which I think I remember finishing ~20 in that year's poll and garnering a lot of ooohs when it ranked.

I assumed if there was more Carly, it would probably be "Call Me Maybe" and "Run Away With Me". Maybe "Cut to the Feeling" as well.

I reckon something really popular in the outside world but which we barely covered here might place.

I'm hardly the borad's biggest Last Train To Paris fan, but if yall haven't heard that album yet, it's certainly worth checking out

― rob, Thursday, August 18, 2022 4:27 PM (fourteen minutes ago)

Revisiting this now and I forgot how much of this I love. Shades is a speed bump after that incredible opening run, but it's not as front-loaded as I thought

I'm still wondering if "Ain't it Fun" will show up, or if that time has past.

Could absolutely see "Ain't It Fun" showing up. I expect the album to do very well, though it seems like some of its big proponents are non-voters.

Exactly. Brad didn't seem to vote in this poll, and it's messing up predictions.

(many xps to voodoo🌶 upthread)

just like with reggaeton, only looking at it through the UK-US lens is not all that useful. reggaeton had been huge outside the Spanish-speaking world for quite some time before it started breaking the US charts. (the UK is still largely allergic to it even today - this in contrast to the afropop situation)

a fun game:

chart success <> poptimist appeal <> critical acclaim/respectability

now locate ILM popularity

I’m not so sure afropop* is guaranteed to do much better in a hypothetical 2020s tracks poll. it all depends on the pool of ilxors who will be left by then, and the trends being what they are expecting more of the same seems more realistic tbh.
when I expressed my disenchantment with the results of the 2000s decade poll (in 2019 I think?) I remember being told that 2000s ILM was a different kettle of fish and that the 2010s poll would be so much better. it’s a bit of a pipe dream I fear.

*again, this is not just about afropop, but about “the lach of geographical & genre diversity”, as per rob

“the *lack of…”

I reckon something really popular in the outside world but which we barely covered here might place.

Rebecca Black's Friday, obviously.

It’s more about campaigning and awareness than not liking afropop.

2020 was the year we had the most afropop tracks in the countdown and I think it was very influenced by your posts and the NAIJA poll you did.

Tim F also used to do a thread on some of his favorite songs of the year and it helped convince people to vote for tracks that did end up in the top 77.

I’m sure that even I could sway enough people to vote for some latin american music if I actually knew how to write about them and tapped into the ones that could be of interest to the board - that said I’m so used to overexposure to latin trap / reggaeton / electropop that come end of year my ears are not fresh enough to even care about nominating them lol

Things conspicuously missing so far that I'd be surprised not to see: Deerhunter, Differentology, Todd Terje, REALiTi (demo), Radiohead, and maybe War On Drugs?

Oh, and more Big Thief

I didn't realize Sunday Candy was nominated?? It would've 100 per cent ranked high on my ballot if i saw it... darn it

I don't think any Big Thief track will fall higher than "Not" (although I'm happy to be surprised... think I voted for a few others myself)

2020 we had Azana and Kabza de Small + Dj Maphorisa on the top 20.

Plus: Rema, Wizkid, Dj Tunez, Simmy, Tiwa Savage, Wande Coal, Master KG, Reece Madlisa.

That’s actually a really high number of representation in a top 77.

War On Drugs feels much more like Album material.

Sure I’d love to see at least 10 soca / dancehall tracks in the 2010s poll, but we need the experts to enlighten us and vote!

many xposts but I don't know that any more country will show up here, maybe another Kacey Musgraves or maybe Springsteen, I voted high for that Brothers Osbourne track Stay a Little Longer. Considering what a force he was this decade this poll could definitely use more Shane McAnally.

2020 we had Azana and Kabza de Small + Dj Maphorisa on the top 20.

Plus: Rema, Wizkid, Dj Tunez, Simmy, Tiwa Savage, Wande Coal, Master KG, Reece Madlisa.

That’s actually a really high number of representation in a top 77.

No Robyn yet, either? Could see vote-splitting hurting her, though.

Is it too late to expect any PC music? ;_;

we need the experts to enlighten us and vote!

i am here. what music needs ranking

Lol not at all.

See in my case we have virtually no exposure to afropop in mexico - although Jerusalema did managed to be a hit in 2020 - and there’s so many good music and content being pushed out of the continent that it’s a scary task. I rely on others to pick the cherries for me. To pick themselves I’d have to really go into the deep end, but that would mean sacrifcing my “main taste” and everyday I have less and less time to really listen to new music.

At this rate even mainstream pop will have to be cherry picked for me, lol. I get more and more disconnected from what’s trending each year.

I'll be shocked if "Old Town Road" doesn't show up.

it took a while for afrobeats to break stateside. wizkid was on “one dance” in 2016, it didn’t become a critical cause celebre until 2019 or so, and it took even longer for it to become a commercial force over here. obv the uk timeline is accelerated a bit.

there will be lots more afrobeats in the 2020s poll

― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Thursday, August 18, 2022 3:07 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

not if the same people who voted in this one are voting in that one. ilx was reliably ahead of teh curve on afropop vs. ... basically anywhere online external to africa itself. the afropop thread here is easily the best on ilm.

"Old Town Road" wasn't even nominated iirc.

Maybe that was the joke?

Wow- you're right! It did pretty well in the 2019 year-end poll.

#5 on the 2019 poll but didn’t get nomMed. I think Montero also ranked on its year.

I do feel you on this lol. it’s the same for me when it comes to dancehall or soca or any type of music that lies outside of my main/core genres of choice that I can barely keep up with as it is.

still tho…

xps to Moka

i think as afrobeats becomes more of the fabric of tasteful anglosphere pop, more folks who voted in this poll will start voting for afrobeats songs. as a person who voted in this poll, my taste has certainly been shaped by breastcrawl, rob, dog latin, and all the others in that thread, and hopefully as that thread continues to thrive, folks will become a bit less anglocentric in their tastes.

there’s always going to be enough people (hi lurkers!) to vote “Archie, Marry Me” (or whatever is considered the most generic song here) into the list

speaking of non-anglocentric music, i'm surprised that there hasn't been any k-pop or j-pop. a few of those songs usually sneak into the year-end polls.

as someone with an extreme amount of nostalgia for ilm of the late 00s and early 2010s, i'm not seeing a lot of that "canon" represented itp. not that there's anything wrong with that--people change, i didn't vote etc--just some songs that felt like 'local anthems' of the board at the time that i hold dear... lightweight jammin, dj quck ft. suga free - nobody, lemme smang it, grove st party, gucci gucci, benoit & sergio/invisible conga people. to name a few. not to say no one else on the internet rated those songs but they each had some cachet here. cool to see 'ass on the floor' place tho

i definitely voted for "nobody" ft. suga free haha, what a banger